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When Will Useless Foreign Aid Spending Just End?

The end of the Second World War saw a Europe truly devastated, prostrate; in some cities the number of buildings with an undamaged roof could be counted in the fingers of one’s hand, with winter aggravating survival of civilians. George Marshall’s idea of a massive infusion of American capital to Europe energized the continent in 1948. It is no exaggeration that it saved millions of lives and reconstructed entire countries. Such was the pace of rebuilding Germany and such was the shortage of manpower after the war that “temporary guest workers” from Turkey began arriving (the “temporary” guests became permanent and today are a cancer in German society). The Germans call it “the German miracle,” as if the rebirth came about in isolation, like Venus rising from the sea. Gratitude from those countries towards the United States proved ephemeral.